Life isn't just addition and subtraction. There's also the accumulation, the multiplication, of loss, of failure.

A pier is a disappointed bridge; yet stare at it for long enough and you can dream it to the other side of the Channel.

Books say: She did this because. Life says: She did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren't. I'm not surprised some people prefer books.

The greatest patriotism is to tell your country when it is behaving dishonorably, foolishly, viciously.

The writer must be universal in sympathy and an outcast by nature: only then can he see clearly.

The land of embarrassment and breakfast.

When you read a great book, you don't escape from life, you plunge deeper into it.

History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.

What is the easiest, the most comfortable thing for a writer to do? To congratulate the society in which he lives: to admire its biceps, applaud its progress, tease it endearingly about its follies.

Some of the freckles I once loved are now closer to liver spots. But it’s still the eyes we look at, isn’t it? That’s where we found the other person, and find them still.

The more you learn, the less you fear. "Learn" not in the sense of academic study, but in the practical understanding of life.

Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity.

Emotional self-defense...Those who care so much, maybe too much, know that it takes wisdom and courage to sometimes say, “no” to others.

Neurosis is just a high-class word for whining.

If I go into a club now, all the blonde girls leave my corner and all the black girls come into my corner. It's as if I'm racist towards white girls!

The price of ability does not depend on merit but on supply and demand.

While There may be power in forgiveness, there is even more power in lobbing a Molotov cocktail through someone's dining room window.

When archaeologists discover the missing arms of Venus de Milo, they will find she was wearing boxing gloves.

My very worst day on 'Green Lantern' was nowhere near as difficult as my finest day on 'Buried.'

A writer's notebook is the best way in the world to immortalize bad ideas. My idea about a good idea is one that sticks around and sticks around and sticks around.

At the end of the day, I stand by who I am. I'm a good person.